


There Are No Cats in Rosohna

by jakia



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-20 22:02:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20682629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jakia/pseuds/jakia
Summary: Or, where do Caleb's cat figurines come from?[Shadowgast. Short and sweet. Written in response to the prompt "Essek gives Caleb a gift"]





	There Are No Cats in Rosohna

There are no cats in Rosohna. 

It’s disappointing; Rosohna is a massive city, the capital of the Dynasty, home of the Bright Queen. Such a large collection of people should have a plethora of cats, in Caleb’s opinion, and yet he’s found none. 

It’s disappointing, and he tells the Shadowhand as much during their study session, when Frumpkin comes wandering in and successfully distracts Essek’s tutelage for a good ten minutes while the drow coos over the creature. 

“He’s so _soft_,” Essek says, his dark hands gently caressing the orange-brown of Frumpkin’s fur. “I’ve never seen a creature like him in the Dynasty.”

“I’ve noticed there aren’t many cats here,” Caleb grins. With a mental command, Frumpkin jumps into Essek’s lap and immediately starts to make biscuits. If he has not already won the Shadowhand over, he thinks that Frumpkin might have done it for him. “Back home, there were cats everywhere. They are excellent hunters–good at keeping away the pests. What do people do here for pests and things?”

“Oh, we have spiders that hunt rodents, creatures that we brought with us from the Underdark,” Essek explains, cooing at Frumpkin on his lap. “This majestic beast is vastly superior, though, in my opinion.”

“Mine as well,” Caleb grins, then banishes Frumpkin back to his home plane, less he distract the Shadowhand so much that he ends up not learning any Dunamancy at all.

Later is when the cat figurines start appearing.

There is no name attached to it; just a small figurine wrapped in purple cloth, on the windowsill of the library adjacent to Caleb’s room. They are small and simple but finely crafted, and there is a small scent of an arcane spark that comes with it that makes Caleb think the figurines were magicked into existence.

A little orange tabby that looks like Frumpkin made of clay, as big as the palm of his hand, appears first.

Later, a little black cat, curled to look asleep.

There is some time after that; when they return from losing Yasha to the Laughing Hand, he finds three, on the inside this time to protect them from the weather. The first is another orange cat, solid this time, the same shade as Caleb’s Cat’s Ire spell. A solid white one, skinnier than the others, molded to look like it’s on the prowl. And his favorite of the bunch, the one that tells him that the cats are made by someone who doesn’t have much experience with cats, is a purple one with blue spots.

He gets the next few rapidly after that; after the disastrous first meeting with the Scourager in her cell, he wakes up to find a sad looking gray one left on the windowsill. Before they leave for Caduceus’s quest, a light yellow one with tan stripes. When they return, a green one with pink and white flowers on it’s head. When he wakes up from a nap after the Scourager stabs him in the neck, there is a fierce, protective looking black one standing guard at the window.

He doesn’t know for a fact who made them, or who is leaving them for him. _And yet–_

“I see you found more cats in Rosohna,” Essek comments, admiring his collection, waiting for Jester to join them again when she called for a snack break. “Feels a little more like home now, I hope?”

He stares at Essek, and says yes. 

**Author's Note:**

> Literally no one asked but what spell Essek casts to make the figurines: I imagine it's a mix of Prestidigitation and a Dunamancy cantrip that I'm calling "Make Permanent" - a spell that allows someone to take an illusion or temporary object no bigger than the size of the palm and make it permanent, warping time and space so that the item temporarily created by prestidigitation always exists. Might need to be a first level spell, but I'm not a game designer.


End file.
